Death
Death is the Lord of the Land of the Dead. He was created when the Unnamed Evil took over the body of Thoth, the God of Dreams, Music and Storytelling, centuries before the War of the Andain. His body was sealed into Mount Purgatory after a fierce battle, but despite his imprisonment he has managed to breach the veil between realms in order to subtly manipulate events and corrupt people over the millennia for reasons that remain unknown. Biography Early Years Birth of Death :See: Thoth, Unnamed Evil Before Death came to be, the Land of the Dead already existed and lived in prosperity. However, at some point the Unnamed Evil attacked the land, causing devastation in its wake. The gods Mardük, Paedün and Thoth came to put an end to the Evil's threat. However, the Evil's power was too much to handle, and only Thoth's sacrifice gave Mardük and Paedün time to escape and bring back reinforcements. However, the Unnamed Evil was too powerful to face alone, and it consumed Thoth, filling his head with dark thoughts. In the end Thoth the Dreamweaver, God of Dreams, Music and Storytelling, ceased to be as the Evil possessed him, and an entity known as Death was born. Mardük and Paedün returned some days later, unable to get help from the other gods but determined to come to their brother's aid. They were shocked when they realized that they were too late to save their brother. They faced Thoth who had become Death, and after a long struggle on top of Mount Purgatory, they barely managed to imprison Death into the heart of the Land of the Dead. Not having the power necessary to destroy Death, they left him in his eternal prison. Despite being imprisoned, Death's power was so immense that it could still take over the Land of the Dead, corrupt the once lush landscape and enslave its once happy and peaceful populace. He used various beings, most notably the Grim Reaper, as his heralds who would harvest souls which would then become his subjects. After becoming the de facto Lord of Death, he set his sights on freeing himself and spreading his influence to other realms in the cosmos. Although his physical body couldn't leave the realm, his consciousness could traverse through the different planes of reality, and his consciousness used the following millennia to explore various realms in hopes of finding a means to free himself. First Steps At some point Death's consciousness found the Land of the Living. Having learned from previous battles, Death chose a subtler approach in order to not draw the gods' attention to himself while he was still recovering. His consciousness began manipulating the minds of various beings in the realm slowly but surely and found great success with a particular dragon whose long life span gave Death enough time to twist the dragon's thoughts and give him ambition. This dragon, Frazzn'korth, succumbed into darkness and tried to become the supreme ruler of dragons. However, the Dark Dragon's plans were foiled, and he was trapped into a magical gem which became known as the Dragon Diamond. This was only a minor setback to Death, though. His success with Frazzn'korth proved that he had a means to influence a world outside his own and corrupt even powerful individuals over time. He would continue his subtle and sinister manipulations in the years to come. He had all the time in the world to proceed with his dark plan. Many years later Death saw another chance to speed up his plans when he made contact with the prideful mind of Haruko Mizushima whom he subtly goaded into murdering her mentor and thus began the eventual corruption of Yggdrasil, the World Tree, and Haruko's life in the Band of the Fox which would lead her to cross paths with Malakhia d'Zarnagon among others. Death also accessed the mind of Kagetsu Aurelac de Maar Sul, the revered Lord of the Andain who was Mardük's son. Hoping to get a hold of Mardük, one of the gods who had sealed him in the Land of the Dead eons ago, by using the god's son Kagetsu as a bait, Death began to subtly influence Kagetsu's thoughts just like he had done with Haruko some time earlier. Death made the Andain lord see the world as inbalanced and unjust and that it needed to be fixed so that all could live equally and have as much power as the gods. That was all that was needed, and Death let time do the rest. In the end his manipulations bore fruit: Kagetsu decided to wage war against the gods in the War of the Andain in order to distribute the gods' power to mortals, but he was defeated and sealed away into a stone. Kagetsu's rebellion did lead to the goddess Gaea's demise, however, and she ended up in the Land of the Dead where Death imprisoned her and began corrupting her spirit. Death made Gaea his consort and began calling her the Tyrantess of the Underworld. Growing Influence The gods' ongoing strifes kept them busy in the years since and made them blind to the threat that had been lurking behind Frazzn'korth's and Kagetsu's insurrections all along. Mardük mourned Kagetsu's dark actions and was still angry at the gods' refusal to help save Dreamweaver. The god's intense internal turmoil about losing his son and brother was all that Death needed to influence and corrupt Mardük's thoughts. Thanks to Death's influence, Mardük became aware of the dark power of the Land of the Dead and decided to harness that power and use it against the others of his order. Mardük's descent into madness was complete, and the God of Chaos twisted the once noble demons into ruthless enforcers of his will and reformed his clergy into sadistic followers of darkness. The god had fully embraced the darker side of chaos. Mardük, fueled by the darkness and madness in his heart, unleashed his vile forces on the Land of the Living and began the Chaos War. After a brutal struggle, he was defeated and sealed away by the Grand Alliance of that time, but once more Death had taken a step closer to realizing his goals. Although Mardük was gone, his corrupted spirit still guided the Clergy of Mardük which kept a close eye on various factions while waiting for a chance to seize power and free Mardük. Death extended his influence to the Demon Realm, following the traces of darkness which Mardük had left in his rampage. Mardük's hate was all that was needed to twist the thoughts of powerful demons such as Malakhia d'Zarnagon and Yurius whose actions would shape the events of the Land of the Living in the struggles to come. Dark Plans The more people became twisted in the ensuing years, the more Death's power grew. Although he was still confined to the Land of the Dead, he had now corrupted enough people who would unwittingly carry on his agenda and make him grow stronger. The increase of Death's influence also spread to the other realms, which caused sickness and an increasing number of dead. In an effort to spread his power further, Death sent various agents from the Underworld to the Land of the Living. Although each of these agents would serve a different purpose, they all were part of Death's grand plan. One of the most notable agents was Drishnek, an ambitious sorcerer whose pact with Death allowed him to continue living as a lich and begin a mission to prepare the Land of the Living for the invasion of the dead. Drishnek's defeat in the hands of Daventhalas de Mont Hault was a setback, but Death had so many agents running around that it didn't give him much concern. Despite his manipulations, Death's powers weren't absolute. There were many spirits in the in-between realms who refused to pass on. Some who had already lost themselves to the oblivion were called back to the Land of the Living, most notably Leon Alcibiates and Jemuel. The revival of Leon gave Death a chance to further influence the Land of the Living through a special rift and send Drishnek back as a lich to carry on his unfinished work, but this rift was eventually closed when Leon was granted full mortality by the dying Yggdrasil for his services to the world in the Great War. After having set things in motions throughout millennia, Death let his willing as well as unknowing pawns carry out his grand plan. One of these forces, the death cult Totenkopfs and their Master, would play a key role in this plan. Godslayer Era Echoes of War Drishnek managed to turn Jemuel, the archmage of the Magicracy of Alent, into his pawn and goaded him to attempt a large-scale necromantic ritual on the population of Alent. The plan was foiled by the mage Richelieu and his Purple Paladins, however, who eventually struck Drishnek down. The lich used unholy magic to revive himself like he had done when Daven had defeated him centuries ago, however, and tried to attack the paladins with Jemuel's help. Jemuel, however, had finally regainwd his senses and realized Drishnek had been using him, so he rejected him and the Underworld. Drishnek became furious and tried to kill Jemuel for his disobedience but just as he was about to attack, he heard the voice of Death in his head. Death wasn't pleased by Drishnek's failure at this crucial moment and told the lich that his gift of undeath had been revoked. Drishnek became horrified by the idea that he wouldn't be able to resurrect himself so easily and fled to take down as many people with him as he could. Death, having forsaken the lich who had failed him one time too many, turned his attentions elsewhere. There would always be more necromancers, Totenkopfs and other people willing to spread his influence, and he had the patience to wait for the right opportunity when to act. Fool's Errand Death's whispers reached the minds of the House of Barca who practiced necromancy in Illunii, and he found Persephone Barca, the youngest member in the family, a suitable follower, which was further helped by Persephone's secret relationship with the demonic Jezebeth as well as her studying necromancy on her own and eventually causing the deaths of her mother Nyx Barca and father Thanatos Barca. The Dresdens, a group of adventurers, ended up furthering Death's plans as well when they retrieved Persephone, who they believed to be a damsel in distress, from Etheril. While they made their escape, the Crimson Coalition which had held Persephone captive sent Curdardh, a rogue member of the Faerfolc, after them. The Dresdens succeeded in opening a portal to the Land of the Dead with help from Persephone and two other necromancers Deidra Finian and Razravkar Dominus. The group lured Curdardh in after them, and they all were hit with horrific visions from the dead who wanted to make their spirits break. Eventually the Dresdens got a hold of themselves and escaped the dead realm intact while sealing the portal after them and thus leaving Curdardh on the mercy of the denizens of the land. Curdardh was overwhelmed by the dead and was brought to the Bald Mountain where he met not only with Death but also Death's consort Gaea. Death spoke to Curdardh, saying that with his arrival he now held the first Faerfolc member in his grasp and could thus extend his influence over the rest of Curdardh's kind. Curdardh, a living being in a dead realm, was eventually corrupted and became a minion of Death capable of summoning undead dire wolves with which to attack anyone traversing the Land of the Dead or the Void. Garden of Fear Death manipulated the fae Aibell's desire to be reunited with her lover Curdardh by promising her the reunion she longed for if she breached the veil between worlds and brought darkness into Survivor's Woods. Aibell's plan was close to succeeding when she managed to open the portal by manipulating the young bard Arcturius to unleash the bardic magic lingering within the Harp of Reynard and returning the revenant Inari Okami's memories to her to unleash her fury. However, due to the interference from a fellowship of adventurers and the rival fae Befana Aibell's plan was thwarted, and the adventurer Osmond Cordae Locke cast her temporarily weakened body into the Void before she could recover her strength, and this act closed the dark portal. Despite the portal being closed, the event still turned out to benefit Death as it allowed Aibell and Curdardh to be reunited as per his master plan. Curdard, now under Death's power, seized Aibell and brought her to the Land of the Dead where Aibell faced not only Death but also Gaea, the Earthmother, which drove her into despair just as Curdardh had been. Now that he finally possessed two faerfolc of the opposite sexes after their race had eluded his touch for so long, Death began accelerating his dark plans and moving into the next phase. Aliases and Nicknames ; Lord of Death : His title. ; Tyrant of Dis : His title as the ruler of the city of Dis. Appearance A sinister looking figure in dark, ominous clothes. His body glows in golden, godly light, and he has blue eyes of death. He appears either grim or contemplative most of the time as he sits on his throne of skulls. Personality and Traits Cold, calculating, manipulative, ruthless. Seems to show no emotion, and his speaking voice is equally chilling. Powers and Abilities The full extent of Death's powers is unknown but he's so strong that he's subjugated most of the Land of the Dead and can astrally project his mind to various realms to influence the beings living there. His corrupting influence is remarkable. Relationships Curdardh After the fall of Etheril to the Crimson Coalition, Curdardh ended up in Death's clutches. Death relished the chance to corrupt a fae which had eluded his influence until now. He turned Curdardh into one of his servants by twisting his mind even further and fueling his rage. Drishnek Drishnek was originally a necromancer who sought power. Eventually his quest and contact with the Land of the Dead corrupted him thanks to Death's influence, and he became a lich who swore to serve his master faithfully. However, Drishnek's failures over the ages tested Death's patience, and Death eventually discarded Drishnek and revoked his gift of undeath after one failure too many. Drishnek survived the banishment, however, albeit in a weakened state, and became a wild card who is no longer completely loyal to Death although he still has a connection to the Land of the Dead. Gaea Gaea was the first god to die in the Land of the Living, and her spirit ended up in the Land of the Dead where Death took hold of her. Gaea is kept in chains and has slowly been succumbing to the realm's influence. Death sees her as his consort and calls her the Queen of the Underworld. Grim Reaper Grim Reaper does his job to the best of his ability and is careful not to anger his master. Death sees Grim as a tool to harvest souls and pays him little attention. Kamen Grimgaze Death has found a useful ally in Kamen Grimgaze, the Master of the Totenkopfs, whose ambition fuels the dead's schemes. The Master follows some of Death's teachings but has other plans in mind. See also *Drishnek *Frazzn'korth *Gaea *Grim Reaper *Kamen Grimgaze *Land of the Dead *Malakhia d'Zarnagon *Mardük *Paedün *Thoth *Totenkopfs *Unnamed Evil Category:Characters Category:First Age Category:Gods Category:Land of the Dead Category:Second Age Category:Third Age